Australian telecommunications companies would be able to start selling Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies' Android-based phones by the third quarter of 2009 if they wanted to, the company said this week.

Huawei entered the Android open handset alliance earlier this week, announcing plans to launch smartphones running Google's new mobile operating system next year.

There would be no launch apartheid where some nations were excluded from the first round of access to the phone, according to a spokesperson, who told ZDNet.com.au that if Australia got the phone later it would be the choice of the telcos and not Huawei.

"Huawei can confirm that their first Android smartphone is scheduled to launch in the third quarter of 2009. Huawei's smartphones can be ordered and developed for Australian operators based on any such requests," the spokesperson said.